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What will you do different today?

Today marks the start of the new Financial year here in Australia. As part of the new financial I’ve been giving due consideration to business planning and in particular what I will do different this year vs last year. The world economy by all accounts is at it’s lowest in many tens of years. Here in Australia, the impact does not seem to be as hard as elsewhere in the rest of the world. Will it last? Will we be hit harder? Will it take a totally different tack? All in all I think that no one can really tell. The solution however is not in the future, but in the past. Look at what you did last year and question- how can you do better? What will you change? What do your customers want and how will you service them in what looks to be an ever competitive marketplace.

This is where a solid business plan comes in to help you establish your goals and focus on the path ahead. So the question to you all is how many HAVE a business plan? How have you compared your performance this last year to that business plan?

I’ll bet money that fewer than 10% of SMB IT Professionals out there actually have a business plan. Of those 10% I’ll bet that a smaller number still have taken the time to review their performance and compare it to that plan.

I once worked for a lady called Susie Welch – she was my sales manager at AST Research back in the early 90’s. She kept drumming into my head one thing… “If you fail to plan then you plan to fail”. Those thoughts stick with me to this very day.